The other day Tanner and I were wandering through Target. We were in there to purchase one item and, of course (as is the way with Target), ended up buying waaaay more than that. At one point we found ourselves in the kitchen section and I started mooning over the crockpots.

I've wanted a crockpot for a while, because it seems to solve a very important problem for me: I like eating good food, but I hardly ever have 8465762 hours to cook it. There's something brilliantly simple about putting a bunch of ingredients in a crockpot at breakfast, letting it sit until dinner on low heat, and having a delightful meal with hardly any effort. Yes, please?

Plus, now that the cold, rainy days are fully upon us in Portland, all I want to do is wear chunky sweaters, wool stockings and knee-high boots, drink tea and slurp warm chicken noodle soup.

Thus, while looking lovingly once more at crockpots, I told Tanner we needed to get one. We had been thinking about it for a while, right? But he said, no, no, I'll call my mom first and we can figure out which size and brand is best and yadda yadda yadda. So I sighed and said, okay, okay, you're right. I'm never one to argue with good pre-planning and thorough research.

So we went home with our modestly full truck of Target goodies (minus crockpot) and as I was putting away the groceries Tanner said, oh wait, I have to clean out the rest of the trunk, and suddenly appeared back at the doorway with a crockpot in his arms.

I was shocked, because I was still thinking how in the hell did you buy that at Target without me noticing? until I realized that he bought it weeks ago and had been saving it for Christmas. He said he had been calling his family and friends to figure out exactly which one to get and he had finally settled on the 5 quart Crockpot brand.

Of course, now I'm feeling horrible because I just ruined his Christmas surprise, but Tanner said he had always thought it weird to give kitchen appliances for presents (I am baffled by this -- I think kitchen appliances make superb gifts. I still adore the Ninja blender he got me last year for smoothie-making) and so he decided after our Target run to give it to me early.

My guilt about ruining the surprise quickly turned into: now we can have an extra two months of crockpot meals! Yay! And double-bonus: Tanner is excited about cooking, too. This is a win, people. In fact, he found a recipe, bought ingredients of his own accord, and concocted a perfect batch of barbecue chicken without my assistance.

I came home from work the very next day and the whole house smelled like wonderfulness. A boyfriend who has dinner waiting for me on the table? This is the best Christmas present ever.